US senators propose sweeping FAA air safety reforms after fatal collision

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - A group of seven Democratic senators on Thursday introduced sweeping air safety legislation after a fatal collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines (AAL.O), opens new tab regional jet in January near Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people.
Lawmakers have questioned why the Federal Aviation Administration failed to act for years to address close calls involving helicopters near Reagan. The legislation would require a review of helicopter and passenger operations at major airports, mandate new FAA safety reviews after fatal passenger airline accidents and require the use of use ADS-B, an advanced aircraft-tracking technology.

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The Guardian

25 minutes ago

• The Guardian

Trump's plan to ban US states from AI regulation will ‘hold us back', says Microsoft science chief

Microsoft's chief scientist has warned that Donald Trump's proposed ban on state-level guardrails on artificial intelligence will slow the development of the frontier technology rather than accelerate it. Dr Eric Horvitz, a former technology adviser to Joe Biden, said bans on regulation will 'hold us back' and 'could be at odds with making good progress on not just advancing the science, but in translating it into practice'. The Trump administration has proposed a 10-year ban on US states creating 'any law or regulation limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems'. It is driven in part by White House fears China could otherwise win the race to human-level AI, but also pressure from tech investors, such as Andreessen Horowitz, an early investor in Facebook, which argues consumer uses should be regulated rather than research efforts. Its co-founder, the Trump donor Marc Andreessen, said earlier this month that the US was in a two horse race for AI supremacy with China. The US vice-president, JD Vance, recently said: 'If we take a pause, does [China] not take a pause? Then we find ourselves … enslaved to [China]-mediated AI.' Horvitz said he was already concerned about 'AI being leveraged for misinformation and inappropriate persuasion' and for its use 'for malevolent activities, for example, in the biology biological hazard space'. Horvitz's pro-regulation comments came despite reports that Microsoft is part of a Silicon Valley lobbying push with Google, Meta and Amazon, to support the ban on individual US states regulating AI for the next decade which is included in Trump's budget bill which is passing through Congress. Microsoft is part of a lobbying drive to urge the US Senate to enact a decade-long moratorium on individual states introducing their own efforts to legislate, the Financial Times reported last week. The ban has been written into Trump's 'big beautiful bill' that he wants passed by Independence Day on 4 July. Horvitz was speaking at a meeting of the the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence on Monday when he said: 'It's up to us as scientists to communicate to government agencies, especially those right now who might be making statements about no regulation, [that] this is going to hold us back. 'Guidance, regulation … reliability controls are part of advancing the field, making the field go faster in many ways.' Speaking at the same seminar, Stuart Russell, the professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, said: 'Why would we deliberately allow the release of a technology which even its creators say has a 10% to 30% chance … of causing human extinction? We would never accept anything close to that level of risk for any other technology.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The apparent contradiction between Microsoft's chief scientist and reports of the company's lobbying effort comes amid rising fears that unregulated AI development could pose catastrophic risks to humanity and is being driven by companies prioritising short-term profit. Microsoft has invested $14bn (£10bn) in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, whose chief executive Sam Altman who this week predicted that: 'In five or 10 years we will have great human robots and they will just walk down the street doing stuff … I think that would be one of the moments that … will feel the strangest.' Predictions of when human-level artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be reached vary from a couple of years to decades. The Meta chief scientist, Yann LeCun, has said AGI could be decades away, while last week his boss, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a $15bn investment in a bid to achieve 'superintelligence'. Microsoft declined to comment.

The Guardian

27 minutes ago

• The Guardian

US senator Alex Padilla criticizes ‘petty' JD Vance for calling him ‘Jose'

JD Vance's decision to refer to California US senator Alex Padilla by the name of a terrorist conspirator showed how 'unserious' the Trump administration is, the lawmaker has said of the vice-president. 'He knows my name – he knows my name,' Padilla told MSNBC's The Weekend on Saturday, 12 days after the FBI forcibly removed him from a 12 June news conference hosted by US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem amid anti-immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) protests in Los Angeles. 'Look, sadly it's just an indicator about how petty and unserious this administration is. You'd think he'd take the situation in Los Angeles more seriously. 'We've got a lot of important work to do. But this is how the vice-president chooses to act, and that says a lot.' Vance's barb toward Padilla on Friday came during a visit to Los Angeles in which he accused mayor Karen Bass and California governor Gavin Newsom of encouraging violent anti-Ice protests to parry criticism from state officials. Local authorities had contended that, over their objections, Donald Trump's administration fueled the unrest by sending federal officers and military troops to the city. When a correspondent for the far-right Daily Wire asked about Democrats being placed in handcuffs by federal officers, Vance referred to Padilla as 'Jose Padilla', invoking the name of a US national who was accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb on behalf of al-Qaida in 2002. 'I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,' said Vance, who previously served on the US Senate alongside Alex Padilla. 'I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is.' The Republican's comments drew backlash from Democrats, prompting a spokesperson for Vance to say that the vice-president 'must have mixed up two people who broke the law.' Newsom called Vance out in a post on social media. 'JD Vance served with Alex Padilla in the United States Senate. Calling him 'Jose Padilla' is not an accident,' Newsom wrote. Newsom continued to take shots at Vance, posting that it was nice of Vance to 'finally make it out to California' and challenging him to a debate. 'Since you're so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face? Let's debate. Time and place?' the post read. Another social media post from Newsom's press office account addressed Trump and included a cartoonish depiction of Vance at a podium. 'Donald, you should send @JDVance out to California more often. He's absolutely crushing it!' In his interview with MSNBC, Padilla alluded to the fact that he had neither been arrested nor charged with any crimes after he was handcuffed and removed from the Noem news conference, saying, 'I didn't break any laws.' Padilla's removal – caught on video – occurred as he tried to ask questions about the White House's immigration policies, which were implemented after Trump won a second presidency in November despite having been convicted in criminal court of 34 felony charges of criminally falsifying business records in a case that involved payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. He told The Weekend that he would have no issue if Trump's immigration crackdown was aimed exclusively at 'drug dealers, violent criminals, dangerous criminals, et cetera'. 'Everybody is on board with that,' he said. But he mentioned recent news reporting that established most people being taken into Ice custody 'have no serious criminal convictions', as he put it. Padilla's removal from the Noem press briefing was just one of many instances of 'overreach' demonstrated by Trump's administration since he retook office in January, he said to The Weekend. 'We have no choice but to stand up – we have no choice but to speak up,' said Padilla, who joined the Senate in 2021. 'As painful as [the removal] was for me, for my family, it's not about me. 'If this is what this administration is willing to do to a senator trying to ask a question, imagine … what is happening in all corners of the country … when the cameras are not on.' Robert Mackey contributed reporting

The Independent

38 minutes ago

• The Independent

US strikes 3 Iranian nuclear sites, inserting itself into Israel's war with Iran

Iran's foreign minister says that with the overnight strikes on Iran, 'there is no red line' that the US has not crossed. Abbas Araghchi spoke to reporters in Istanbul on Sunday. He also said that the last red line "and the most dangerous one was what happened only last night when they crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities only.' THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's foreign minister says diplomacy is not an option after a U.S. strike on its nuclear facilities. Abbas Araghchi spoke in Istanbul to journalists Sunday. He said while the 'door to diplomacy' should always be open, 'this is not the case right now.' THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday that Washington is 'fully responsible' for what actions the Islamic Republic takes next in retaliation against the U.S. strikes on its various nuclear sites. 'The warmongering, a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression,' Abbas Araghchi said in a news briefing at a conference in Turkey. These were the first public statements from a high-ranking Iranian official since the U.S. carried out its strikes. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States attacked three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel's war aimed at destroying the Iranian nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe that prompted fears of a wider regional conflict as Tehran accused Washington of launching "a dangerous war.' U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that Iran's key nuclear sites were 'completely and fully obliterated' in an address to the nation from the White House. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed that attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz sites, but it insisted that its nuclear program will not be stopped. Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations following the strikes. Satellite images taken after the American attack, analyzed by The Associated Press, show damage to the entryways to the Fordo facility, which is dug deep into a mountain, while light gray smoke lingered in the air. The images by Planet Labs PBC also appeared to show damage to the mountain itself, apparently blocking its entry tunnels, which means Iran would have to dig out the facility to reach anything inside. It was not clear whether the U.S. would continue attacking Iran alongside its ally Israel, which has been engaged in a war with Iran for nine days. Countries around the globe are calling for diplomacy and no further escalation. Trump acted without congressional authorization, and he also warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against U.S. forces. 'There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran,' he said. Iran's Foreign Ministry said Washington had 'betrayed diplomacy' with the military strikes in support of Israel, and said that 'the U.S. has itself launched a dangerous war against Iran' now. 'The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to resist with full force against U.S. military aggression and the crimes committed by this rogue regime, and to defend Iran's security and national interests,' the ministry said in a lengthy statement. Hours after the American attacks, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched a barrage of 40 missiles at Israel, including its Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities reported that more than 80 people suffered mostly minor injuries, though one multi-story building in Tel Aviv was significantly damaged, with its entire façade torn away to expose the apartments inside. Houses across the street were almost completely destroyed. Following the Iranian barrage, Israel's military said it had 'swiftly neutralized' the Iranian missile launchers that had fired, and that it had begun a series of strikes toward military targets in western Iran. The US helped Israel strike Iran's toughest nuclear site Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat. The decision to directly involve the U.S. in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel that significantly degraded Iran's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities. But U.S. and Israeli officials have said American B-2 stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound (13,500-kilogram) bunker-buster bomb that only they have been configured to carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground. Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel's operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran's nuclear program, perhaps permanently. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan," Trump said in a post on social media, using common alternate spellings for two of the sites. "All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.' Trump added in a later post: 'This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!' Israel announced Sunday that it had closed its airspace to both inbound and outbound flights in the wake of the U.S. attacks. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation. U.S. military leaders are scheduled to provide a briefing at 8 a.m. Eastern. The attack used bunker-buster bombs on Iran's Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant that is built deep into a mountain, a U.S. official said. The weapons are designed to penetrate the ground before exploding. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. In addition, U.S. submarines launched about 30 Tomahawk missiles, according to another U.S. official who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The International Atomic Energy Agency wrote on X that there has been 'no increase in off-site radiation levels' after the strikes but that it would continue to monitor the situation. Trump's turn to strikes departs from some previous statements The decision to attack was a risky one for Trump, who won the White House partially on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism. But Trump also vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, and he had initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country's leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully. For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time. After Israel began striking Iran, Trump went from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a 'second chance' for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran's unconditional surrender. He has bristled at criticism from some supporters who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to those who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's decision to attack in a video message directed at the American president. 'Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history,' he said. Netanyahu said the U.S. 'has done what no other country on earth could do.' Fears of a broader war U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the strikes a 'dangerous escalation,' as world leaders began chiming in with calls for diplomacy. 'There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control — with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region and the world,' he said in a statement. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who had threatened to resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel's military campaign, called on other Muslim nations to form 'one front against the Zionist-American arrogance." Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned the United States on Wednesday that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will 'result in irreparable damage for them.' And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared 'any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region." The Israeli military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran's foreign minister warned before the U.S. attack that American military involvement 'would be very, very dangerous for everyone.' Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 865 people and wounded 3,396 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group said of those dead, it identified 363 civilians and 215 security force personnel. Trump's decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program. During his previous administration, Trump pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, prompting Tehran to begin enriching uranium to higher levels and restrict the access of IAEA inspectors to its facilities. ___ Madhani reported from Morristown, N.J. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi, Mehdi Fattahi and Amir Vahdat in Iran; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv; Lolita Baldor in Narragansett, Rhode Island; Samy Magdy in Cairo; and Farnoush Amiri in Dubai contributed to this story.